21 November 2016A special seminar with Professor Robert W. Gordon discussing "The Return of the Corporate Lawyer-Statesman?" Co-hosted by CLSGC, the London School of Economics, and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. 3:30 - 5:30pm. Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Charles Clore House, 17 Russell Square, London

(image source: Nouvelobs)The French National Archives announce, in the framework of their cycle "Retour aux sources" (Back to Sources) a special session on the Parliament of Paris, the highest court in the realm under the Old Regime. The event takes place on 15 November 2016, 14-17:45

(image source: Böhlau) The Institut d'histoire du droit (Paris II) announced the publication of the fifth volume in the Böhlau collection on the Influence of Canon Law scholarship on European Legal Culture, devoted to the Law of the Economy.

The Legal History Blog reports the publication of the chapter "What is Comparative Legal History? Legal Historiography and the Revolt Against Formalism, 1930-60" (Adolfo Giuliani, Perugia), forthcoming in Comparative Legal History: A Research Handbook in Comparative Law (ed. Aniceto Masferrer Domingo, Kjell Å Modéer, and Olivier Moréteau (Elgar 2016). This word is a project of our Society.

Abstract:What is comparative legal history? This essay aims to show that to understand the rise of this field of inquiry we need first to clarify how historiography changes in time. To this purpose, this essay begins from two main ideas.First, the writing of legal history is deeply intertwined with an image of law which tells us what is law, how it is created and by whom. This is in fact the premise for doing legal history, as it determines the object of investigation.Second, the decades 1930-60 saw a profound turn in European legal science. Some legal scholars challenged the legacy received from the 19th century and launched an attack on the ‘formalism’ at the heart of its intellectual framework.Those path-breaking insights gave life to a wave of works self-styled as comparative legal history published in the period 1930-60. At their heart were some of the innovative ideas that have fueled original legal-historical research in the last decades, and which today are shared as an obvious truth (e.g. to place law in context, to think outside the doctrinal box, the dislike of abstract theorising). They are the fruit of the antiformalist turn of the 1930-60.The text can be downloaded on SSRN.

ESCLH presentation to the European Parliament, Juri Committee: 12/10/2016A delegation from the ESCLH was invited to present to the European Parliament on Wednesday 10 October 2016. Matthew Dyson (Oxford, Vice President for External Affairs), Anna Klimaszewska (Gdańsk, from the 2016 conference organising committee) and Dirk Heirbaut (Ghent, Founding Vice President) presented on the work of the committee at the 9am session of the committee, at the Parliament in Brussels. The purpose of the presentation was to showcase some of the work the society and its members and strengthen the links between detailed research and policy-making. The event was at the invitation of the Juri committee, following discussions particularly with Michal Galedek and Anna Klimaszewska, to whom the Society is grateful. The delegation took the time to mention some of the papers from the 2016 Gdańsk conference, as well as go into depth into two specific areas of research.The video of the hearing (from 09:09:00 until about 09:45:00) is available to download here:http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20161012-0900-COMMITTEE-JURI#managehelp

(Mgr Sencie Institute; image source: Screenflanders)The University of Leuven (R. Lesaffer, I. Van Hulle) organizes a conference on International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century on 24 and 25 November 2016.On the conference:Recent historiography on public international law of the long nineteenth century consists of several storylines. For a long time, there was a strong emphasis on the period after 1870, which was regarded as a precursor to the formation of a truly global international law. Thus the nineteenth century was presented as the era in which international law as a discipline finally came to fruition through the creation of specialized chairs, professional societies, modern journals and academic contributions. International jurists embraced new scientific theories such as economic liberalism and positivism and said goodbye to the natural law as an interpretative paradigm. In addition, significant progress was made in the area of human rights, international humanitarian law, arbitration and the conclusion of multilateral treaties. However, in contrast to these nobles aspirations, recent literature on international law has also indicated the strong ties to imperialism. Recent research has taken important steps towards investigating the development of international law in the period before 1870, for example, by highlighting its contribution to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery, the impact of political economy, the role of the Holy Alliance and the growth of international maritime law and warfare. This conference aims to encourage critical reflections on traditional historiographical themes, methods and sources used to study nineteenth-century international law. As such, they will provide new research topics such as, for example, the role of big versus small states in shaping international legal doctrine, the contributions of Western and non-Western jurists for the development of international law, the continuities and differences in relation to earlier and later periods, the legacy of the Napoleonic era, indigenous forms of international law, regional systems of international law, etc.Day 1:Day 1, 24 November 201612:30 Registration - coffee, tea12:45 Welcome by the Dean B. Tilleman12:55 Welcome by Randall Lesaffer13:00-14:30 First panel: The Eighteenth-Century Fall-Out on Nineteenth-Century International Law13:00-13:20 James Crawford, Napoleon – A Small Issue of Status13:20-13:40 Camilla Boisen, Subjecting International Relations to the Law of Nature: A Neglected Aspect of the Early Modern Jurists and Edmund Burke13:40-14:00 Raymond Kubben, The Nineteenth-Century Origin of Conceptual Comfort on ‘Statehood(30 minutes question time - followed by coffee break)15:00-16:30 Second panel: Neutrality15:00-15:20 Frederik Dhondt, Permanent neutrality or permanent insecurity? Obligation and self-interest in the defense of Belgian neutrality15:20-15:40 Shavana Musa, The Law of Neutrality in the Long Nineteenth Century15:40-16:00 Viktorija Jakimovska: Uneasy Neutrality: Great Britain and the Greek War of Independence(30 minutes question time followed by coffee break)17:00-18:00 Third panel: Historiography of Nineteenth-Century International Law17:00-17:20 Miloš Vec, Which Narratives for Which Histories? The Contested Story of 19th Century International Law17:20-17:40 Jan Lemnitzer, Economic globalisation and mid-19th Century expansion of International law Day 2:09:00-09:30 Registration - coffee, tea09:30-11:00 First panel: Professionalization and International Law 09:30-09:50 Stephen Neff, The Science of Man: Anthropology and International Law in the Nineteenth Century09:50-10:10 Vincent Genin, Institut de droit International’s Crisis (1873-1899)10:10-10 30 Ana Delic, Formative Interactions of Comparative Law and Private International Law (1820s to 1900s)(30 minutes question time - followed by coffee break)11:30-13:00 Second Panel: Empire and the Periphery in the Nineteenth Century 11:30-11:50 Andrew Fitzmaurice, ‘Equality in the Law of Nations11:50-12:10 Stefan Kroll, Public-Private Colonialism: Political Authority and Judicial Decision-Making in the Shanghai International Settlement12:10-12:30 Anne-Charlotte Martineau, Revisiting the Abolition of Slavery in the Long 19th Century (30 minutes question time - followed by lunch)14:00-15:30 Third Panel: Individuals and International Law14:00-14:20 Gabriela Frei, A Nation should be judged by its Laws” – Sir William Jones and the Translation of Hindu and Islamic Laws in Bengal (1788-1794)14:20-14:40 Raphael Cahen, The Mahmoud ben Ayed case and the transformation of international law14:40-15:00 Inge Van Hulle, British Imperial International Law in Africa and its Agents(30 minutes question time and concluding remarks)15:45 Closing ReceptionVenue: Mgr. Sencie Instituut, Erasmusplein 2, 3000 Leuven (room MSI 1 03.12)

Temporary Labour Migration in the Global EraThe Regulatory ChallengesEdited by Joanna Howe and Rosemary OwensIn the global era, controversies abound over temporary labour migration; however, it has not previously been subjected to a sustained socio-legal analysis on a comparative basis, critiquing the underpinning concepts conventionally accepted as fundamental in this area. This collection of essays aims to fill that void. Complex regulatory challenges arise from temporary labour migration. This collection examines these challenges and the extent to which temporary labour migration programmes can be ethical, equitable and efficacious and so deliver decent work for workers. Whilst the tendency for migration law to divide labour law’s worker-protective mission has been observed before, the authors of the chapters comprising this collection seek not only to interrogate why and how this is so, but to go further in examining the implications and effects of a wide range of regulatory mechanisms on temporary labour migration.Joanna Howe is Senior Lecturer and Rosemary Owens is Emerita Professor, both at the University of Adelaide.Click here for more details about the Oñati International Series in Law and SocietyOctober 2016 9781509906284 440pp Hardback RSP: $114 DISCOUNT RATE TO EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBERS: $102.60 (+ postage)Please click here for more information about this title and to order onlineNEW AS PAPERBACKNationalism and Private Law in EuropeGuido ComparatoWhile the internationalisation of society has stimulated the emergence of common legal frameworks to coordinate transnational social relations, private law itself is firmly rooted in national law. European integration processes have altered this state of affairs to a limited degree with a few, albeit groundbreaking, interventions that have tended to engender resistance from various actors within European nation-states. Against that background, this book takes as its point of departure the need to understand the process of legal denationalisation within broader political frameworks. In particular it seeks to make sense of opposition to Europeanisation at this point in the evolution of European law when, despite growing nationalist attitudes, great efforts have been made to produce comprehensive legal instruments to synthesise general contract law - an area that has traditionally been solely within the ambit of nation-states. Combining insights from the disciplines of law, history and political science, the book investigates the conceptual and cultural associations between law and the nation-state, examines the impact of nationalist ideas in modern legal thought and reveals the nationalist underpinnings of some of the arguments employed against and, somewhat paradoxically, even in support of legal Europeanisation.The author's research for this book has been supported by the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law.Guido Comparato is a postdoctoral researcher in the Law Department of the European University Institute.Click here for more details about the Modern Studies in European Law SeriesAugust 2016 9781509907410 332pp Paperback RSP: $52.95 DISCOUNT RATE TO EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBERS: $47.65 (+ postage)Please click here for more information about this title and to order onlineNEW AS PAPERBACKGlobal Order Beyond LawHow Information and Communication Technologies Facilitate Relational Contracting in International TradeThomas DietzReviews‘A study like the one presented in this book is highly interesting for research on the use of international trade law and the actual needs of traders … Dietz presents a highly interesting spectrum of information about the actual problems and their solutions that business people encounter in this globalised world.’Maren Heidemann, European Business Law Review‘Thomas Dietz’s book will be enjoyable to any reader interested in contract law theory, in the specificities of complex software development agreements, in international commerce and trade, in sociological approaches to law, or in institutional economics, among other fields. Readers will find in Dietz’s work a fascinating study of contract law in action that forces all of us to be less attached to formal contracting rules and to consider other alternative mechanisms that work in the shadow of contract law or in its absence.’Antoni Rubí-Puig, European Review of Contract LawWell-functioning contract law is a crucial prerequisite for economic development. However, even though international trade has increased enormously in recent decades, we still know little about the contract enforcement mechanisms that exist in today's globalised markets. The aim of this work is to shed light on the governance of complex cross-border contracts by developing a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding the relevance of both formal and informal institutions. This framework is then applied to an empirical study of cross-border software development contracts. Combining a unique data set of 41 qualitative expert interviews with statistical data and surveys, the author demonstrates that state contract laws show fundamental signs of dysfunction across borders. Companies engaged in globalised exchange therefore rarely use this mechanism. Even the European Union's supranational enforcement order is, in practice, insignificant. Against all expectations, international commercial arbitration also turns out to be limited in its ability to provide a workable legal infrastructure for global commerce. With global trade lacking a reliable formal legal order, companies have reacted by creating their own informal governance structures. This book explains how complex exchange in global markets has emerged in the absence of a global legal order.Thomas Dietz is Associate Professor for Politics and Law at the University of Muenster.Click here for more details about the International Studies in the Theory of Private Law SeriesAugust 2016 9781509907434 270pp Paperback RSP: $43.95 DISCOUNT RATE TO EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBERS: $39.55 (+ postage)Please click here for more information about this title and to order onlineNEW AS PAPERBACKPerpetrators and Accessories in International Criminal LawIndividual Modes of Responsibility for Collective CrimesNeha JainReviews‘Jain's book is invaluable… her work serves as an excellent companion for an introduction to the subject, both for the newly initiated as well as for the expert in international criminal law… Jain presents an abundance of information while venturing a critical approach that leads her to present her own theory. [The book] is infused with interesting and cautiously articulated ideas that invite us to think critically about its core concepts - perpetration, principal-accessory distinction, the basis for high-level perpetrator liability, and the peculiarities of international crimes that have to be accommodated in a truly international criminal law.’Dafni Lima, The Cambridge Law Journal.‘Jain's book is essential reading not just for scholars and students of international criminal justice, but for anyone who cares about how domestic criminal law - in any system - treats principals and accessories.’Jens David Ohlin, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Online.International criminal law lacks a coherent account of individual responsibility. This failure is due to the inability of international tribunals to capture the distinctive nature of individual responsibility for crimes that are collective by their very nature. Specifically, they have misunderstood the nature of the collective action or framework that makes these crimes possible, and for which liability may be attributed to intellectual authors, policy makers and leaders. In this book, the author draws on insights from comparative law and methodology to propose doctrines of perpetration and secondary responsibility that reflect the role and function of high-level participants in mass atrocity, while simultaneously situating them within the political and social climate which renders these crimes possible. This new doctrine is developed through a novel approach which combines and restructures divergent theoretical perspectives on attribution of responsibility in English and German domestic criminal law, as major representatives of the common law and civil law systems. At the same time, it analyses existing theories of responsibility in international criminal law and assesses whether there is any justification for their retention by international criminal tribunals.

Neha Jain is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. She has held research positions at Georgetown University Law Center, and at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg, Germany. Professor Jain completed her BCL and DPhil in law from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar and Jowett Senior Scholar at Balliol College. She served as a law clerk to former Chief Justice VN Khare of the Supreme Court of India and has interned with the Office of the Prosecutor at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and with the Legal and Treaties Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs.August 2016 9781509907397 250pp Paperback RSP: $52.95 DISCOUNT RATE TO EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBERS: $47.65 (+ postage)

The scholar’s symposium of this year's national CLS conference (Washington, DC, October 21-22) is built around the book Law and the Bible: Justice, Mercy, and Legal Institutions (InterVarsity Press), which I edited with David Van Drunen. I and several other authors (Randy Beck, Tremper Longman, Bill Brewbaker, and David Smolin) will speak on three separate panels about our chapters (Genesis, OT Law, OT history, Jesus, and NT letters). The details are below this message. Here is the link to the scholars' portion of the conference:

Call for PapersJournal of Law and Criminal Justice ISSN: 2374-2674 (Print) 2374-2682 (Online)Journal of Law and Criminal Justice is a refereed international journal that seeks to publish high quality research papers in the areas of socio-legal studies and the psychology of law, criminology and social justice studies. The Journal invites papers based on empirical research, theoretical analysis and debate, and policy analysis and critique. The journal is dedicated to presenting system-wide trends and problems on law, crime and justice throughout the world. It provides a forum for social scientists to report research findings for policy making with respect to crime and justice through innovative and advanced methodologies.The journal is published by the American Research Institute for Policy Development that serves as a focal point for academicians, professionals, graduate and undergraduate students, fellows, and associates pursuing research throughout the world.The interested contributors are highly encouraged to submit their manuscripts/papers to the executive editor via e-mail at editor@aripd.org. Please indicate the name of the journal (Journal of Law and Criminal Justice) in the cover letter or simply put ‘Journal of Law and Criminal Justice ’ in the subject box during submission via e-mail. The journal is Abstracted/Indexed in CrossRef, CrossCheck, Cabell's, Ulrich's, Griffith Research Online, Google Scholar, Education.edu, Informatics, Universe Digital Library, Standard Periodical Directory, Gale, Open J-Gate, EBSCO, Journal Seek, DRJI, ProQuest, BASE, InfoBase Index, OCLC, IBSS, Academic Journal Databases, Scientific Index.E-Publication FirstTME-Publication FirstTM is a feature offered through our journal platform. It allows PDF version of manuscripts that have been peer reviewed and accepted, to be hosted online prior to their inclusion in a final printed journal. Readers can freely access or cite the article. The accepted papers are published online within one week after the completion of all necessary publishing steps.DOI® numberEach paper published in Journal of Law and Criminal Justice is assigned a DOI® number, which appears beneath the author's affiliation in the published paper. JLCJ is inviting papers for Vol. 4, No. 2. The online publication date is December 31, 2016. Submission Deadline: October 31, 2016. For any additional information, please contact with the executive editor at editor@aripd.org Regards,Professor Dr. Billy Long, Ferrum College, USA.Editor-in-ChiefJournal of Law and Criminal Justice Website: www.jlcjnet.com

Call for ApplicationsPerelman Centre for Legal PhilosophyFELLOWSHIP ON LEGAL PRAGMATISM AND REALISMThe Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy of the Université Libre de Bruxelles is callingfor applications for an 8 months full time Fellowship on Legal Pragmatism & Realismin the framework of the Twining Llewellyn Fund.1. FELLOWSHIP OF THE NATIONAL FUND FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHThe fellowship will unfold as part of a research program sponsored by the BelgianNational Fund for Scientific Research. It has two key objectives. First, it aims at starting aPhD research on legal pragmatism and realism focusing on the material of the TwiningLlewellyn Fund. Second, it seeks to facilitate the reception of the Twining-Llewellyncollection at the Perelman Centre and to make it fit for public consultation. This involvesworking hand in hand with different services at the ULB (library, archives, etc.) forcataloguing, referencing and setting up online and onsite consultation services.The fellowship position is initially available for 8 months (November 1, 2016 – June 30,2017- see more below), during which the fellow will be enrolled as a doctoral student atthe Université Libre de Bruxelles. After such a period, the Perelman Centre may offer thefellow the possibility to continue writing the doctoral dissertation. This offer is subjectto availability of funds and positive evaluation of the fellowship period.2. TWINING- LLEWELLYN FUNDKarl Nickerson Llewellyn (1893-1962) was a preeminent American legal scholar basedat the University of Chicago who is particularly known for advancing the RealistMovement of legal thought, and for his involvement in the development of the UniformCommercial Code. William Twining (1934-) is a British legal theorist and founder of theLaw in Context Movement. His contributions span across jurisprudence, evidence andproof, legal method, and legal education. He is a leading scholar on the subject of legaltheory and globalization. William Twining made a significant donation of his personallibrary to the Perelman Centre which includes (1) a shadow version of the Llewellyncollection at Chicago, (2) The Soia Mentschikoff shadow collection; (3) a personalcollection of books owed by William Twining on American jurisprudence, realism,globalisation and Jeremy Bentham, and (4) William Twining’s material, whichencompasses some of his academic correspondence, annotated material, and hispublished and unpublished works.3. REQUISITESApplicants must hold a Master’s degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent, preferably in law. Theselection committee will evaluate on a case-by-case basis the eligibility of applicantsholding a Master’s degree in other disciplines than law. Applicants who already hold aPhD are not eligible. Special consideration will be given to applicants with aninternational academic profile and excellent academic results.We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with aptitude for academic research,collective research and teamwork. Candidates must be fully fluent in written and oralEnglish, and have good management and IT skills. Professional experience is notrequired but can constitute a valuable asset in the application.Contract start date 1/11/2016A later starting date is possible. However, the end date of the contract will not change (30June 2016). Please indicate in your application when will you be available to take up theposition.Contract duration and salaryEight-month scholarship. The grant amounts to around €1800 net.ApplicationApplications must be sent to the Director of the Perelman Centre, Prof. Isabelle Rorive(philodroit@ulb.ac.be). Please write as email subject “Fellowship vacancy – Candidateyour surname”.Deadline for receiving applications is 20 October 2016. Shortlisted candidates will becontacted for an interview.The application must include the following documents:• Applicant CV• Motivation letter• The candidate’s master thesis or, eventually, a paper written in theframework of his/her studies.The Perelman Centre for Legal Philosophy: For more information regarding theframework of his/her studies.Perelman Centre and its activities please visit the website www.phildroit.be

(image source: Brill)Mieke Van der Linden (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg) published an updated version of her doctoral dissertation (defended at Tilburg University, under the direction of R. Lesaffer, 2014) under the title The Acquisition of Africa (1870-1914). The Nature of International Law.Book description:Over recent decades, the responsibility for the past actions of the European colonial powers in relation to their former colonies has been subject to a lively debate. In this book, the question of the responsibility under international law of former colonial States is addressed. Such a legal responsibility would presuppose the violation of the international law that was applicable at the time of colonization. In the ‘Scramble for Africa’ during the Age of New Imperialism (1870-1914), European States and non-State actors mainly used cession and protectorate treaties to acquire territorial sovereignty (imperium) and property rights over land (dominium). The question is raised whether Europeans did or did not on a systematic scale breach these treaties in the context of the acquisition of territory and the expansion of empire, mainly through extending sovereignty rights and, subsequently, intervening in the internal affairs of African political entities. On the author:Mieke van der Linden, Ph.D (2014), is senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. She has published a dissertation, book chapters and articles on the legacy of Africa’s colonization in international law, including ‘The Inextricable Connection between Historical Consciousness and International Law: New Imperialism, the International Court of Justice and its Interpretation of the Inter-temporal Rule’ (in: C. Binder et al., 2014 ESIL Conference Proceedings, vol. 5. Oxford: forthcoming) and ‘The Euro-Centric Nature of International Law, A Legacy from New Imperialism’ (in: D. De ruysscher et al (eds.), Legal History, Moving in New Directions. Antwerp: 2015, pp. 413-427).Table of contents:Preface 1. New Imperialism: Imperium, Dominium and Responsibility under International Law 2. Dominium 3. Imperium 4. Territorium et Titulus 5. British Nigeria 6. French Equatorial Africa 7. German Cameroon 8. Ex facto ius oritur? 9. A Reflection on the Nature of International Law: Redressing the Illegality of Africa’s Colonization 10. Evaluative summary and conclusion Chronological list of treaties and other agreements Bibliography More information on Brill's website.

Annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress WorkshopApril 28-29, 2017UCLA School of LawAnnouncement and Call for PapersOrganized by Máximo Langer (University of California at Los Angeles), Jacqueline Ross (University of Illinois College of Law), and Kim Lane Scheppele (Princeton University)Co-sponsored by the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Illinois College of Law, Princeton University, and the American Society of Comparative Law We invite all interested comparative law scholars to consider submitting a paper to the next annual Comparative Law Work-in-Progress Workshop, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 28 and 29, 2017, at UCLA School of Law. We will accept up to seven papers for workshop discussion, and we plan to select a mix of both junior and senior scholars.Interested authors should submit papersto Máximo Langer at UCLA School of Law langer@law.ucla.eduby February 1, 2017.We will inform authors of our decision by March 1, 2017. Participants whose papers have been accepted should plan to arrive in Los Angeles, California by Thursday night on April 27, 2017, and to leave on Saturday April 29, 2017 in the late afternoon/evening. The annual workshop continues to be an important forum in which comparative law work in progress can be explored among colleagues in a serious and thorough manner that will be truly helpful to the respective authors. "Work in progress" means scholarship that has reached a stage at which it is substantial enough to merit serious discussion and critique but that has not yet appeared in print (and can still be revised after the workshop, if it has already been accepted for publication.) It includes law review articles, book chapters or outlines, substantial book reviews, and other appropriate genres.We ask for only one contribution per author and also ask authors to limit their papers to 50 pages in length, or, if the paper (or book chapter) is longer, to indicate which 50 pages they would like to have read and discussed. Our objective is not only to provide an opportunity for the discussion of scholarly work but also to create the opportunity for comparative lawyers to get together for two days devoted to nothing but talking shop, both in the sessions and outside. We hope that this will create synergy that fosters more dialogue, cooperation, and an increased sense of coherence for the discipline. The participants in the workshop will consist of the respective authors, commentators, and faculty members of the host institutions. The overall group will be kept small enough to sit around a large table and to allow serious discussion. The papers will not be presented at the workshop. They will be distributed well in advance and every participant must have read them before attending the meeting. Each paper will be introduced and discussed first by two commentators before opening the discussion to the other workshop participants. Each of the authors selected for the workshop is expected to have read and to be prepared to discuss each of the papers selected. The author of each paper will be given an opportunity to respond and ask questions of his or her own. There are no plans to publish the papers. Instead, it is up to the authors to seek publication if, and wherever, they wish. The goal of the workshop is to improve the work before publication. The Workshop will be funded by the host school and by the American Society of Comparative Law. Authors of papers and commentators will be reimbursed for their travel expenses and accommodation up to $600, by either by the American Society of Comparative Law or UCLA School of Law, in accordance with the ASCL reimbursement policy (as posted on its webpage.) We ask that authors inquire into funding opportunities at their home institutions before applying for reimbursement by the ASCL or by the University of Illinois.

Early Louisiana and Her Spanish World:Legal Tradition, Laws and Customsin Luisiana and the Floridas4 November 2016 – Tulane University School of LawSupported by the Tulane University School of Law and The Portalis Society, the conference brings together historians and legal historians to discuss the laws, customs, and institutions of Spanish Louisiana and the Floridas. The scope is intentionally broad and covers almost anything linked to law and culture (doctrine, personalities, property, politics, extra-legal norms, etc). *Lawyers of Early New OrleansKenneth Aslakson (History, Union College) Spanish Law, Encyclopaedias, and the Digest of 1808John W Cairns (Law, Edinburgh)Through a Glass Darkly:The Minor Judiciary of Feliciana, c1803-1810Seán Patrick Donlan (Law, South Pacific) “The Spanish Spirit in This Country”: Newcomers to Louisiana in 1803-1805, and Their Perceptions of the Spanish RegimeEberhard (Lo) Faber (Music, Loyola)A Confusion of Institutions: Spanish Law and Practice in a Franco-phone Colony Louisiana, 1763-c1798Paul Hoffman (History (Emeritus), Louisiana State)A Dark Legacy of Spanish Governance: The Tradition of Extra-Legal Violence in Louisiana's Florida ParishesSamuel C Hyde, Jr (History, Southeastern Louisiana)The Supreme Court, Florida Land Claims, and Derecho IndianoMC Mirow (Law, Florida International)Allegiance and Privilege:William Panton and the Spanish RealmDavid Narrett (History, Texas at Arlington)

The Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center seeks to hire tenure-track or tenured faculty members with a starting date in August 2017. Among others, we are looking for a civil law professor, preferably with a comparative law/international law profile, to teach civil law classes in our bi-jural, civil law and common law curriculum. International applicants should contact Prof. Bill Corbett (bill.corbett@law.lsu.edu) or Prof. Missy Lonegrass (missy.lonegrass@law.lsu.edu) and email them their resume at their earliest convenience, as the Faculty Appointment Committee will start organizing preliminary interviews in September 2016, and call shortlisted candidates for onsite visits in October and November. They may also want to contact Prof. Olivier Moréteau (olivier.moreteau@law.lsu.edu) for feedback on the LSU Law Center and its teaching and research activities. Below is the text of the official announcement.LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, PAUL M. HEBERT LAW CENTER seeks to hire tenure-track or tenured faculty members. Areas of particular interest to us include the following: business/transactional law; clinical; criminal law and criminal procedure; evidence; family law; and civil, international and/or comparative law. We also may consider applicants who specialize in areas other than those listed. Applicants should have superior academic credentials and publications or promise of productivity in legal scholarship. Contact: Melissa T. Lonegrass or William R. Corbett, Co-Chairs of the Faculty Appointments Committee, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University, 110 LSU Union Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-0106. The Paul M. Hebert Law Center of LSU is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Employer and is committed to building a culturally diverse faculty and encourages applications from female and minority candidates.

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)No law is neutral. Law is always a mirror of the value-system and the power structure underlying any given society at any point in time and international law has never been an exception to this rule. A different, and yet related matter, is the extent to which the law applies equally (or not) to all members of any given society, the extent to which these members participate as equals (or not) in the formation of international law and the extent to which the law is effectively (or not) applied in an objective and un-biased manner (what is, commonly known, as 'neutrally') by international bodies and adjudicators charged with applying it to international situations or with settling disputes between any given parties. The aspiration towards 'neutrality' (as such conceived) of international law in its quest for an ever-greater legitimacy, has, undoubtedly, evolved throughout different historical periods. Neutrality in the history of international law can, on the other hand, also be understood as a legal institution. Neutrality as a legal institution was born as a synonym for emancipation from a rigorous moral top-down juridical-moral framework inherited from theology. Its theoretical blossoming went in parallel with the consolidation of the principle of sovereign equality of nations and the principle of non-intervention in domestic affairs during the transition of the classical law of nations to modern international law. Since the establishment of the first international institutions with universal and permanent character, neutrality as a legal institution has continued to evolve against the background provided by the ever-shifting chessboard of international relations and proliferating international institutions. Finally, the relationship of neutrality and the history of international law can be also examined through the lenses of the neutrality (or lack of) of history writing itself. If all history is, as B. Croce noted, contemporary history (by which it is generally meant that all history writing is, in one degree or other, done from the perspective of the present and also that all history writing constitutes an intervention in the present) could any historical account possibly aspire to be considered a 'neutral' history of international law? And, if so, under what criteria? The Interest Group of the History of International Law welcomes abstracts that engage critically with any of these dimensions of neutrality in the history of international law or a combination thereof in historical perspective by reference to relevant episodes in the history of international law and/or different historiographical schools. Each submission should include: – An abstract of no more than 400 words, the intended language of presentation, – A short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address. Applications should be submitted to both Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral (ignacio.delarasillaydelmoral@graduateinstitute.ch); and Frederik Dhondt (frederik.dhondt@vub.ac.be) by 15th December 2016. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 15th January 2017. Selection will be based on scholarly merit and with regard to producing an engaging workshop, without prejudice to gender, seniority, language or geographical location. Please note that the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law is unable to provide funds to cover the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation costs.

(image source: SSRN)Prof. Anne Orford (Melbourne) posted 'International Law and the Limits of History', a forthcoming chapter in The Law of International Lawyers: Reading Martti Koskenniemi (eds. Wouter Werner, Alexis Galán and Marieke De Hoon, CUP).

Abstract:This chapter explores the effect that the turn to history has had on the field of international law. The publication of Martti Koskenniemi’s history of the international legal profession, The Gentle Civilizer of Nations, is often presented as representing a moment at which the field of international law took a ‘turn to history’, or more precisely, a turn in its mode of writing history. Of course, international law has always had a deep engagement with the past. Past texts and concepts are constantly retrieved and taken up as a resource in international legal argumentation and scholarship. Thus the ‘turn to history’ trope marks a turn to history as a critical method, rather than a turn to history as a substantive engagement with the past. Koskenniemi himself introduced The Gentle Civilizer as a ‘move from structure to history in the analysis of international law’ and ‘a kind of experimentation in the writing about the disciplinary past’. In later work, however, he became much conventional in his exposition of history as method, arguing against the ‘sin of anachronism’ and urging critical scholars to focus on the meaning of texts for their authors’ ‘contemporaries’. A similar turn to history as method more broadly begin to shape new writing about international law over the decade following The Gentle Civilizer’s publication. This chapter suggests that the turn to history as method that followed in the wake of The Gentle Civilizer was an abandonment of the critical potential of that initial work. What marked out The Gentle Civilizer as a singular achievement was Koskenniemi’s attempt to hold together the history of international law, the sociology of international law, and the practice of international law. If the attempt to hold together those genres is abandoned, the critical potential of historical work in international law is lost. The chapter concludes by exploring what the historicizing of international law as a critical gesture might mean for the field going forward.More information on SSRN.(source: Legal History Blog)

(image source Brill)Book abstract:This book considers British influences on the development of international law over 100 years from 1915. This century has been marked by unprecedented developments in international law, not least the setting up of an array of international organisations, including the United Nations and the League of Nations, and international courts and tribunals (including the International Court of Justice and its predecessor the Permanent Court of International Justice, as well as the International Criminal Court). Two world wars, complex transboundary issues and increased globalisation have shown the importance of international law. This volume addresses these developments – domestic, regional and international - and looks at how Britain and British people (broadly defined) have influenced these changes. The contributors to the book have examined an array of different issues. These include British influences on treaty-making, recognition and immunity, as well as on specific fields of international law, such as armed conflict, criminal law, environment and human rights. It has commentary on the British influence on the sources of international law, including by its courts and Foreign Office, in the development of the European Union and in the idea of a professional international lawyer. There are also reflections on many of the key people over the century. The book provides a novel perspective, which surveys and appraises the contributions of British people and institutions in domestic and international legal forums and their key role in the development, interpretation and application of international law. Table of contents:

Robert McCorquodale & Jean-Pierre Gauci, From Grotius to Higgins: British Influences on International Law from 1915–2015

Antonios Tzanakapoulos, The Influence of English Courts on the Development of International Law